Saturday, November 30, 2013

Specifically a 1956 Aston Martin DB 2/4 MKII Supersonic, the only Supersonic built on an Aston Martin chassis and was first displayed at the 1956 Turin Auto Salon. The car was driven by American grand prix racing driver Harry Schell. More pics

The Lux Sport was a luxury car designed by a team of Polish builders under the leadership of engineer Zygmunt Okołów in 1935. Notable features were the frame structure of the chassis, independent suspension with double wishbone at each wheel, hydraulic double-acting shock absorbers consisting of four long torsion bars, allowing adjustment of ground clearance in the range of 180-230 mm from the passenger compartment, automatic lubrication of the relevant elements of the chassis, adjustable suspension and hydraulic drum brakes.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Early Nazi announcement of the Volkswagen in the late 1930s, an illustration considered for but not used in the book 50 years of Volkswagens in NZ.

It was used, however, in the book Art of the Third Reich which has over 300 examples of Nazi produced or approved art and is an interesting read about how ideology and prejudice took over cultural expression generally (despite disagreement in some matters by Goebbels) and how those whose work was not approved of were banished in the Reich (although so-called 'degenerate' artists could move to Paris where they could paint unmolested during the occupation and their work could be bought and sold at auction as long as it was not exported to the Reich.)

Loco 99 787 on the right is a 2-10-2T built in 1955 by Lokomotivbau Karl
Marx, Potsdam-Babelsberg. This is on a preserved 750 mm gauge operation known as the Sächsisch-Oberlausitzer Eisenbahngesellschaft which operates trains between Zittau and Bertsdorf with 2
branches to Kurort Oybin & Kurort Jonsdorf. See earlier post for details on the railcar on the left. (Geoff Churchman pic)

Seen in the now defunct Interflug (see earlier posts) livery. A total of 852 of the general type were manufactured. The Tu 134 made its first scheduled flight in September 1967. The second series were denoted Tu-134A, however, this one doesn't seem to have the distinctive glass nose and chin radar dome - more info

A F1 car is made up of 80,000 components. If it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

When a F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a brick wall at 300 km/h

A F1 car can go from 0 to 160 km/h AND back to 0 in 4 seconds

A F1 car's engine lasts only for about 6 hours of racing mostly before blowing up. On the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20 years on an average and they quite faithfully do - that's the extent to which the engines are pushed to perform.

An average F1 driver looses about 4 kg of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over 1 hour 45 minutes.

At 550 kg, a F1 car is less than the weight of the original Mini.

As an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 km/h. They usually race at over 300 km/h.

In a street course race like the Monaco Grand Prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!

The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family car. They use the same refuelling rigs used on US military helicopters today.

Top F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds.

During the race, the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.

Inserted into packs of cigarettes by the different manufacturers, these collector cards were intended to encourage people to collect a full set, necessarily buying the same brand. They were quite small and this pic (full resolution) shows about actual size. For NZ examples, see our forthcoming book on NZR memorabilia.

Canfranc is an enormous 240 metre long station on the Spanish side of the Pyrénées and today little used. It was opened in 1928 following the construction of the 93 km (58 mile) electrified international line from Pau in France. Following a 1970 train derailment which demolished the L'Estanguet bridge near Accous on the French side of
the mountains, the French decided not to rebuild the bridge and the cross
border line was closed, 43 years later still the situation.

French TER regional railcars go from Pau only as far as Oloron-Sainte-Marie, 35 km (see earlier post). Canfranc sees similar trains from Zaragoza. It is planned to extend the TER on the section between Oloron-Sainte-Marie and Bedous, 25 km, in 2015. more here

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An international retailer of books, magazines, DVDs and postcards since 1985 and
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All at Sea: stories of New Zealand seafarers

Narratives from interviews conducted over several years with 16 merchant navy sailors - 14 men and 2 women - who recounted their stories from the last full fledged sailing ship, the Pamir being returned to her home country of Finland after WWII to recent stories on today's inter-island ferries and coastal vessels, as well as international cargo and passenger ships which sailed to various parts of the globe. A full range of occupations are covered from Deck Boy, Engineer, Steward to Master as well as harbour pilots, union leaders and shipping company executives.

NZR Memorabilia

A fabulous new book containing many colourful illustrations of old postcards, pamphlets, posters, and a wide range of objects that have been used by the NZR and its personnel from the 1860s to the present time. Together they tell in visual form the importance of NZR to NZ and its people over the past 150 years and provides a useful reference for collectors.

Voyage to Gallipoli

Details of the troopships to the Gallipoli campaign of WW1 and more WW1 naval history.